OT--Virus infected computer

I let the grand daughter on my desktop computer and it is now recked, virus infected and I cannot do anything with it. Does anyone know if there is a way to download virus software to my laptop and use it to try to clean up my infected system? Is there any good free virus software on line that I can try to get me out of this. My system will boot up but will not run any progrqms including getting on the internet but I have a laptop to keep me going. Thank you in advance for any help. Mike......................

Larry hit it right. Avast is a great free AV program and is totally
free. The problem with your computer is that you may not be able to
download it if the computer is not working. You may be in a catch-22
situation and the local Computer Doctor may be your only way out.....

If you had virus protection on your computer which was originally loaded from the manufactures disk, it may be worth a try to stick that disk in the computer then start up the machine. I think some virus programs will get you started that way and then you may be able to clean the virus off.

Probably a long shot, but may be your only one short of taking the computer to a computer tech.

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK, 'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

Microsoft has free anti virus software now. They were going to charge for it, but they have been embarassed about all the viruses that seem to infect Windows machines, so this is their way of making amens.

The computer people I talked to say it is pretty good, and it is free.

Go to Microsoft.com Highlight the Security & Updates tab and you will get a menu, then click on Security Essentials - that will take you to the free download.

Download MalwareBytes (free), Avast (free home edition), Viprerescue (free), and Comodo Firewall (Free). Burn them to a cd and install and run the MalwareBytes first, on the infected system. If it won't install, go to their forum and see if there is a workaround. It depends on what has infected your system, since some may prevent it from installing. Update it and run the full scan. Let it do it's thing and remove anything that looks suspicious. If you are not sure, google it. After that, Install and update Avast. Set it up to run a "boot time scan" and set all of the settings to "High" and be sure to scan ALL files, including archives. If it finds anything, let it move the file to the "Chest" if it can. You might want to disable system restore and purge all of the temporary internet files before scanning with either program. Remember that when system restore is disabled, you can no longer return to a previous state. You can re-enable it after the system is clean. Some of these critters can live in the temp files and system restore. If you have trouble installing, updating, or running either program, you can get Viprerescue installed to do a scan in safe mode from a command prompt. Once clean, install Comodo as a "firewall" only. These programs are all free and there is no need to buy the full programs unless you feel like you need to. The "pay" versions may have additional features, but they will work fine as is. There are other tools you could use depending on what got in. This will give you a good start and clean better than 85% of what ails the system.

Make sure ALL of the Windows updates have been done, once the system is clean. Be sure to update any other programs like Java, Flash, Adobe, etc. Go here: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/ and do an online scan and check your system for additional vulnerabilities.

Let us know how you make out. If you run into trouble, you can always use google. There is a wealth of information out there, once you have identified the bug.

Whatever you do, do NOT connect the two systems together, or share writable media. You could spread the infection to the second system. Trend Micro has a few tools, but they haven't been as effective these days. Sysclean and HiJack This are two popular ones. They are available here, along with a host of others: http://esupport.trendmicro.com/consumer/Pages/ProductDownloads.aspx#SP

The online "HouseCall" scanner won't work if you can't connect.

I usually find that the Trend Micro products are slow and do not always do the job. HiJack This can also allow you to do quite a bit of damage to your windows installation. It's not for beginners.